Perspectives: Could students be involved in your assessments?

Course video 14 of 39

As research shows, assessment plays an important role in steering the learning process. There is, however, not one best method of assessment. So, how can you select the right methods of assessments for your course? Making an assessment plan can help you select the right testing methods and decide on the relative weight of each assessment for the final result of a course. An assessment plan also helps to ensure that the assessment addresses the intended learning outcomes. In addition, it provides a good overview of the test arrangement for a course that will be published in the course manual. This makes an assessment plan a helpful tool for examiners and an important instrument for quality assurance. With an assessment matrix, you ensure that all the selected learning objectives are covered in your assessment. This also helps to ensure that your assessment will be both valid and reliable.
Whereas making an assessment matrix may feel like additional work, using it will actually save you time as you will develop questions and assignments that exactly match your learning objectives and you avoid the risk of formulating too many questions that are aimed at the same content or skill.

Are you a teacher in higher education wanting to get the best out of your students and assessments? Then on behalf of Risbo, Erasmus University Rotterdam, we would like to welcome you to this MOOC on Assessment in Higher Education. In this MOOC we will guide you through the different phases of preparing, creating and evaluating the assessments in your course.
After participating in this MOOC, you will be able to:
1. Design an assessment that is constructively aligned (content, level, methods) with the course objectives and activities
2. Apply the quality criteria with respect to validity, reliability and transparency for construction of assessments and assessment items
3. Analyze the assessment output and results, assess the quality of the assessment and make decisions about students’ grades accordingly
4. Formulate future improvements for an assessment
For the assignments, you will be working with your own teaching materials. For example you will create your own assessment plan for your course. Next to that you will become part of a learning community with teachers from all over the world.
We are offering you instructional videos, interviews, animations and checklists. In addition to these, there will be course activities, such as assessments, and discussion prompts. By participating in this MOOC, you will find answers to the following questions:
• What is the role of assessment?
• How can you select the right methods of assessment for your course?
• What is constructive alignment?
• How can an assessment plan and matrix help you in the construction of assessments?
• Is it possible to make an absolute reliable and valid assessment?
• How can the formulation of good assessment questions have an impact on that?
• What is the role of feedback?
• How can rubrics help with providing feedback?
• What are the things to consider when performing an exam or item analysis? What aspects should you look out for?
• How do you draw conclusions from an exam analysis and make plans for future improvements?
• If good students fail on certain questions, what does this say about the question… or about your teaching?
Are you ready for enhancing your teaching skills? Then take this journey with us.